A muscle tightened in Cam’s jaw. “And why have none of the other mighty sorcerers and sorceresses downstairs thought of this?”
Unfortunately, that question required something more than a yes or no answer. “Robbie gave me a potion to help me think more clearly.”
Cam cursed, closing his eyes a second. “I’ll have mom and dad take Nigel back. We’ll go with one of the other prisoners.”
“Absolutely not.” More time was the last thing any of them needed. “There’s only a small chance the spell will go wrong in exactly the way I described. And don’t even try to tell me you didn’t plan for Nigel doing something ridiculous. You probably have six different contingency plans, depending on the particular flavor of idiocy he attempts.”
“Of course I did. But those plans are to stop him from hurting you, not stop him from accidentally tying you to his dangerously incompetent self for the rest of your life.” He stalked towards her, the frustration in his voice seemingly aimed as much at himself as it was at her. “I thought if he tried anything, we could just whack him in the head and start over again. But the look on your face made it clear that’s not going to work.”
“It might.” Unless her mother and aunt took Robbie’s potion, and realized the same things she had. She’d have to figure out a way to steal them back. “I was thinking of worst case scenarios. It could be fine.”
“See, I can’t even tell if I really am overreacting or if this is some secret suicide tendency of yours I can’t figure out!” Cam’s voice was climbing by the second, the words hitting Elena hard even if he wasn’t thinking clearly enough to aim them. “I need to be able to trust you!”
“How dare you!” Livid, she shoved at him. The fact that he barely moved only made her angrier. “Who in all the gods’ names do you think I’m doing this for? Do you know how hard it is to keep trying like this? It took years for me to make peace with the fact that my life was over, and now I—I—”
When her brain caught up with what she had said, Elena gave in and clamped her hands over her mouth. Obviously, this was a sign that she should just stop talking permanently, since any kind of brain-to-mouth filter she’d once had access to had vanished along with the ice inside her.
Cam just stared at her, all traces of anger replaced by sheer, unadulterated shock. “Who are you doing this for?” he asked, voice far less steady than it had been.
All she could do was stare back, horrified to realize her eyes were filling. Elena didn’t dare move her hands away from her mouth, not at all certain what would come out next if she did. She thought back to all of those careful conversations with Dr. Flyte, all those times when he’d seemed almost desperate to get some kind of strong emotional reaction out of her.
Clearly, all he’d had to do was shove Cam into her life. The man had made her lose her mind.
The shock on Cam’s face had melted into something almost like wonder, and his own eyes were suspiciously wet. “Elena,” he asked again, gently enough to break her in half. “Who are you doing this for?”
She squeezed her eyes shut, the tears leaking down her cheeks. Slowly, carefully, she felt Cam pull her hands away from her mouth. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Don’t be sorry.” Cam’s voice was rough with emotion. “Don’t ever be sorry for something like this.” He lifted one of her hands to his lips, placing a gentle kiss against the palm. He chuckled against her skin, the sound just a little wild. “I was trying to figure out how to tell you myself.”
Elena’s eyes flew open. “What?”
“Oh, don’t play dumb like that with me.” The wry humor on his face didn’t hide the way his voice shook a little. And his eyes, his eyes held everything. “I’m amazed you didn’t pick up on it before now.”
She swallowed, still capable of doing nothing more than staring at him. The potion Robbie had given her was completely useless now, her brain stunned enough to be beyond even magical assistance. She’d long ago decided that romantic love wasn’t something she could afford to have in her life, and now that it had suddenly appeared she found herself entirely unprepared for it. “You could have given me a hint,” she managed finally,
A challenging light flared in his eyes. Then, after a single, breathless moment, he bent down and kissed her.
The feel of Cam’s lips against hers, the taste of him on her tongue, was as wonderful as all those stupid romances said it would be. He tried so hard to be gentle, but Elena would have liked nothing more than to disappear entirely into the rush of feeling he sent coursing through her. No more curse, no more deadline, just this moment stretching on for eternity.
His hands cradled the sides her face, his touch utterly tender as he showed her everything she’d never even imagined. Weightless with the light and heat of it, she clutched him as if he was the only thing keeping her from flying away.
But such wonders couldn’t last forever, no matter how much she wanted to. When the kiss ended, Cam seemed as reluctant to pull away as she was. “Does that work?” he murmured.
She was horribly embarrassed to feel her eyes filling again. “You cheated,” she whispered, wrapping her arms around him and holding on for dear life.
Cam let out a breath as his own arms came around her. “If I’d known it was an option, I would have cheated a long time ago.”
She wanted to laugh, even though it didn’t make the slightest bit of sense. What had just happened had raised the stakes for the spell infinitely higher than she’d ever wanted them to be, and it would only make dealing with everything that much harder. According to any kind of logic, admitting she loved Cam was almost as terrible an idea as falling in love with him in the first place.
But that wasn’t enough to stop the wild, bubbling happiness inside her. Cam loved her back. Now everything mattered so much more than it had just a few hours before.
She pulled back enough to look up at Cam, thinking furiously. “I can use the freezing spell on Nigel as soon as he steps into the circle. It doesn’t last very long, but if I have everything prepared in advance I might have just enough time to finish before he unfreezes. That way, he won’t have the chance to try anything.”
Cam looked worriedly down at her. “If he sees you toss a restraining spell at him, he may try and jump you no matter how hard the sealing spell shocks him.”
Not to mention the fact that Dr. Flyte would raise a protest that would waste valuable time. But she wanted to live, more than she had in a very long time, and she didn’t see another option. “We aren’t going to be able to completely eliminate my risk in all this, Cam.”
An intent look came into his eyes as he lifted his hands to cup her face again. “No, but there’s a way we can lessen it.”
Chapter 22
Battle Royale
Cam took a deep breath. “I’ll take Nigel’s place in the spell.”
On the surface, he knew that the idea sounded stupidly self-sacrificial. That was his first thought when it had occurred to him somewhere in the middle of his and Elena’s argument, and he’d initially rejected it as part of the nonsense people always spouted when they were in love.
But it made tactical sense, and the part of Cam’s brain that could still think clearly knew that. The only way to completely eliminate the risk was to make sure that everyone involved would do exactly what they were supposed to. They had to want it as much as Elena did.
More, probably.
Elena, naturally, didn’t feel the same way. For a second, she looked absolutely terrified. “No.” Then she wrenched away from him, fury flooding in to replace the fear. “Never.”
“It’s our best option.” He reached for her, then decided it was probably a bad idea. “It’s the best shot we have of making sure the spell goes perfectly.”
“Which means that you’ll be the one the curse gets redirected at!” She stared at him as if he’d lost his mind, fingers curling l
ike she wanted to physically shake some sense back into him. “Even if everything goes exactly according to plan with Braeth’s spell, all that happens is the deadline falls on your head instead of mine. We’re trying to fix this, not make it worse!”
“You’ll fix it.” He tried to put all his determination and faith into what he was saying. “If we can make this work like everyone thinks, sending me under gives you the best conditions for being able to untangle the curse like you talked about.”
“But what if that’s still not enough? What if I still fail you?” Her eyes filled again, and she swiped her hand across them to get the tears out of the way. “And what about your parents? Your siblings? They love you just as much as I do, and it won’t even be their fault!”
Every word was a kick to his heart, just like he knew she’d meant them to. But if he had to, he’d face everyone he loved down and explain just like he was trying to do with Elena. “Risking our lives for the greater good is the family business. They won’t like it, but they’ll have to understand.”
“I don’t!” She was fierce now, her entire stance screaming defiance. “If I wouldn’t let Bishop put himself up on the chopping block, do you really think I’m going to let you risk your life over this?”
Cam’s instinctive stubbornness immediately protested the word ‘let,’ but the rest of him smacked the thought into silence. Instead, he held his hands up in a supplicating gesture. “Explain to me how this is different than someone coming at you with a sword.”
That seemed to throw her for a second. “This is a magical attack,” she said, grabbing for the first answer that came to her. “When that happens, it’s my job to protect you.”
He almost smiled at that. “Want me to get out the document outlining my job description? Because I can promise that little detail isn’t written down anywhere.”
“It should be,” she snapped back, eyes narrowed. “And it will be, even if I have to throw a sleeping spell at you and shove you in a closet for a week.”
He had no doubt she would do exactly that if she felt she had to. Unfortunately for her, she’d need backup in order to be able to pull it off. “Won’t work. You know every single person in the circle is going to agree with me on this. They’d be able to undo anything you threw at me.”
Fear flickered back across her face as she realized he was right. She squeezed her eyes shut again. “Don’t do this,” she whispered. “Please.”
Needing to touch her, Cam walked over and put his hands on her shoulders. “I’m not doing this as your bodyguard,” he said quietly, voice thick with all the worry and hope of the last few days. When she opened her eyes, he bent his head enough that she’d have to meet his gaze. “I’m doing this as the man who’s already planning his collection of embarrassing pictures of our future children.”
Her eyes were wet. “You’ll be alone.”
“Not at all.” When she shot him a disbelieving look, he pressed a kiss against her cheek. “I have you watching my back.”
She inhaled shakily, bracing her hands against his sides as if she could keep him in place. “There might—”
“I am apparently woefully behind in the castle gossip. I had expected to interrupt a shouting match.”
At the sudden sound of Braeth’s voice—the wraith had a really bad habit of using his shadow trick to melt into rooms while other people were distracted—Elena flinched as if realizing what she’d been about to say. Shaking her head, she yanked herself backwards and away from Cam again. He let her go, knowing that holding her wouldn’t help things any.
“A shouting match isn’t the only reason to put up a silence shield.” Elena glared at Braeth, turning away from Cam just enough that there was no chance to even make eye contact. “And we seriously need to figure out a way to put a bell on you.”
“I look forward to your attempts.” The wraith’s hood shifted as he looked back and forth between the two of them, as if weighing the sudden change in emotional temperature. “I suspect, though, that you were discussing matters far more serious than romance.”
Cam considered whether getting Braeth on his side would help matters or just make Elena more determined not to listen. “We were talking about—”
Elena stepped forward, raising her voice to talk over the top of his. “Did you need one of us for something, or have you simply gotten bored of arguing with Dr. Flyte?”
Cam pushed ahead before the wraith could respond to Elena’s question. “We were talking about the possibility of Nigel moving at the wrong time and the spell echoing off one of her protective circles. She’s afraid it—”
She shot him a furious look. “I simply said it might—”
Cam raised his voice. “She’s afraid the spell will reflect and make her Nigel’s shield instead of the other way around.”
The invisible wind around Braeth stopped moving for a second. “There are measures we can take,” he said. “If we require him to take an oath—”
“She did, and followed through with the sealing spell I’m sure you’re about to suggest,” Cam interrupted, keeping his eyes on Elena. “She thinks there’s some way he can get around it.”
Braeth turned to Elena, who tried to look anywhere else before responding. “The sealing spell sometimes doesn’t work if the person doesn’t believe they’ve truly broken their vow.” She sounded like the words were being dragged out of her. “I’m not certain enough how Nigel’s mind works to be sure.”
“True.” The wraith made a sound that might have been a sigh. “It’s been centuries since I cast a compulsion spell, but I’m certain it would take me only a few minutes to remember the specifics.”
“No.” Elena’s voice was firm. She was doing the same thing he was, talking to Braeth while her glare was only for Cam. “Those leave the person too suggestible, which means he’ll try to follow anything and everything that sounds even vaguely like a command. Besides, this is all an overreaction. I can handle whatever magical risks Nigel might cause, and just as well as Cam can handle the physical dangers.”
“There’s enough risks in all this as it is,” Cam responded. “Now is not the time to be taking on more.”
“Exactly!” There was a brief light of triumph in Elena’s eyes. “Especially if the person taking on the risks wasn’t in danger in the first place!”
“It seems wisest to take this discussion downstairs,” Braeth cut in, bony fingers gesturing towards the door.
Elena whirled on him. “My mother does not need to be involved in this.”
The wraith just looked at her for a moment, not responding, then turned to Cam. “I was referring to the fact that your parents have arrived with Nigel. They are waiting in the throne room until we have further instructions for them.”
By the time Cam looked back at Elena, she was already out the door. He indulged himself with the most creative curse he could think of, then glared at Braeth. “You couldn’t have waited five minutes?”
The wraith didn’t threaten him with lightning, which was probably as close to an apology as he ever got. “You offered yourself in the prince’s place,” he said instead.
If he was about to get lectured in “romantic nonsense,” he was definitely going to have to hit something. “It’s our smartest option right now.”
“Yes, it is,” Braeth agreed, surprising him. “I will inform the others.”
That was Cam’s cue to head for the throne room. He ran the first part of the way, but after the first few panicked looks from the staff he forced himself to slow to a quick walk. Running guardsmen were the first sign of disaster, especially if they were in uniform.
When he got to the throne room, he found Elena had closed (and possibly barricaded) the throne room doors behind her. Cam steeled himself for the fight he knew was coming. In comparison, taking part in the actual spell would be a piece of cake.
With that less-than-happ
y thought, he pushed the doors open.
The throne room was relatively small, functional rather than ornate, decorated only by a few tapestries on the wall. There were no barricades, but the four people waiting inside would be enough trouble on their own. Nigel was standing next to Cam’s father, scanning the room with the disdain of someone already making plans to redecorate. Given the fact that he was still wearing his prison uniform, and smelled like he hadn’t bathed in a week, he really had no room to talk.
Elena was in the opposite corner of the room talking to Cam’s mother. His mom was in uniform, just like his dad, and Elena was still in her work dress. Whatever they were talking about must have been pretty serious, their voices low and Elena’s hands gripping Marie’s arms tightly. A dozen different emotions shifted across his mother’s face, one after the other, and Cam looked away before he could identify any of them.
Instead, he headed over to his father and Nigel. The prince, catching sight of Cam, immediately started trying to back away. Since Alan had a firm hold on the chain linking the handcuffs, however, all that happened was he nearly ended up falling backward over his own arms.
Both Cam and his father ignored this. “Nigel won’t work for the spell,” Cam told Alan, deliberately using his “making a report” tone of voice. “You should take him back to the station.”
Nigel, having some trouble finding his feet again, protested. “You can’t have these heathens drag me all the way here only to be dragged back again! The princess specifically requested my assistance!”
Alan, who had been watching Marie and Elena’s discussion with an intensity Cam knew wasn’t good, turned back to his son. “I’ll need a few more details than that.”
“It turns out that if Nigel moves at the wrong time, he could screw up the spell so completely we won’t be able to cast it again.” He pointed at Nigel, finger only a few inches from the man’s nose. “And if a wrong step is enough to make that happen, think of all the other damage he could accidentally do.”
Nigel drew himself up to his full height, looking offended. “A prince does nothing they don’t intend to.”
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